The epic of Costa Rica

The epic of Costa Rica

March 18, 2008
1:33am
We’re awake because of the Mission Heights team who came into the training centre (it’s a really large team, so I’m not surprised) and our own adrenaline. Who in their right minds would be up this early? My stomach’s a bit upset so I’m probably not going to eat. I’m excited though. We’re leaving VTI’s training centre at 2:15am. See you on the plane. I’m going to be a mad house.
12:20pm(1:20pm Texas time)
So, we’re in Wichita Falls. TX while we wait for the tornados to clear out of Dallas area. They’re ordering pizza for all of us as we sit here on the tarmac. We’re not really sure how this is all going to work, but we’re all enjoying the hospitality and visiting. I wish my guitar was out. It’s cool to see God working.
3:25pm(TX time)
We had some Domino’s pizza, a prayer time, and it looked like we were just about to leave and then another system has moved in. It sounds like our flight for now is cancelled, but I think we’ll still be going. Food was good to this plane. And to me for that matter!
4:35pm
We’re leaving…Bu the way, an hour ago we had some Dr. Pepper Coke. That was a blast. Here we go to Dallas! (Coke is the word for pop down here…. Coke coke, Dr. Pepper Coke, Pepsi Coke… it’s weird)
6:30pm
We are stranded in the airport. We arrived at 5:30pm and though I’m not allowed to say to the others yet, we may stranded here for up until Friday. Don’t tell anyone. Never know when God might do something crazy. This is all very exciting.
March 19
7:50am
Apparently last night Nathan Hill said to his Dad Tim, or vice versa, “I’d rather trust a blindfolded monkey with a straight razor.” We all slept ish. A few minutes here and there. People were stealing our cots last night, but on the plus side we were able to get some blankets from the airline to keep a little warmer. They make good capes. I forgot! At around 6ish this guy drove by saying “…’scuse the cart! ‘Scuse the cart please.” Joel mentioned such wonders to me, but now I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
11:35am
Karina and I were going to be leaving to go to our gate 33 to go to Miami to get to Costa Rica with mostly everyone but our own team! Now I hear they’ve tried to reshuffle it into teams. If so, Karina and I probably won’t be going anywhere. And Karina needed some NyQuill so I’ve got less money now in American. *sigh* Tough I’m still optimistic, it’s getting harder and harder. My Debt card won’t work here by the way…
1:30pm
Off to eat a hamburger… I’ve been reading and visiting all morning. I’m not sure how long we’ll be here for. The other team is about to leave now.
1:35pm
Karina and I are just about to leave for Miami! You see how things change? Unfortunately our team is still stranded. On the upside, we’re in a Boeing 777! I’ve always wanted to fly in one. Anyways, I’m praying that God will get our team out safely and soon so that we can be with them.
1:39pm
Never mind…. My team all just walked on in! Weird! God Rocks! This is so weird. AJ’s team, Mission Heights might not all get on, but to have this many already is incredible!
7:45pm
Ok, so we got to Miami, and we had little time between flights. Mark didn’t know that our entire team didn’t have tickets for Costa Rica yet. As such, mass panic nearly ensued. Mark went off to do something and I suddenly became the leader. Crazy. This always seems to happen to me in airports… Oi…. So, we were trying to figure out why we had confirmed tickets for Costa for the guys on Mission Heights who hadn’t come yet… We really messed up the counter guy…well, technically the airline did. He was pretty stressed anyways. So Karina and I again are on the plane for a 3hr flight and we are hopefully going to Costa Rica. One day late, but it feels like many more.
10:25pm (Costa Rica time)
We arrived in Costa Rica safe and sound. Met a Canadian guy out of the airport who works here. His name is Jeremy.
March 20
At 7:45 this morning a Spanish lady came into the boys’ cabin and started greeting us in Spanish as she came and got some cutlery and then took off. That was surprising! We had some fruit and cereal for breakfast which the smell triggered memories from mornings in China for me.
We’re having our orientation right away and then this afternoon we’re going to pick up our luggage and other left behinders.
10:00pm
Ben, Pastor Tim and a few of the girls on our team got here around 7ish. It’s great to have the whole team together again. We had a time to sing and talk and pray tonight at 9:30. It felt interesting though. Like something is out of place. And though I’d like to think it’s in other people, I want to hope it’s me instead. I need God to give me the ability to work here. I cannot do it on my own. Guitar included.
March 21
In a nutshell, we did ‘team building games’ after breakfast this morning. It was pretty strenuous, but it was really fun! Then just before we played soccer I was hanging out with Tayler and Adam and then Tayler jumped off this stump and I heard a ‘pop’ sound and then he was in a lot of pain and couldn’t walk. Jeremy brought over the little tractor with trailer as a couple of the adults on our team were examining him. He had to sit around in the dining hall area for a few hours while we waited for someone to come with a vehicle to come pick him up to take him to the hospital. What’s funny is the day before they told us about this kid, last year or the year before, was fooling around on Good Friday and split his head open jumping in the river. Good Friday in a very Catholic nation means that there probably won’t be many doctors around. Anyways, everything worked out perfect for this kid in years past, and then we realized… it was good Friday today!!! I went with Tayler and his mom Leahn to the hospital sitting on the wheel well in the back of a jeep for the 2 hour ride there. Long story short, Tayler did in fact break his leg. The whole situation though was really funny. Tayler does crazy things and has never broke anything, until he jumped off a small stump in Costa Rica… lol… Oi.
March 22
3:40pm
Today was a work day. We got up early today to see off the Mission Heights Team. One girl got a piece of bread covered in jam, stuck to her face. Some of the leaders I tell you…. O.o
All morning I was chopping brush on a trail with a machete, and all afternoon (after a spaghetti lunch) we scraped rust off a rook and tried to get cleaned up before this evening. I’m not sure yet what to expect.
March 23
9:34pm
Last night was great. We went to a youth group and sang some and did an artsy activity. We had to make posters about Integrity, Strength, Faith, Courage and I think Obedience too. Anyways, it was fun. Unfortunately Karina’s ankle started acting up because of our 3-5 km walk (it was mostly uphill). So going back, Rhys and I stood on either side and helped her all the way back.
Today was interesting. It was Sunday and we were supposed to all wear nice clothes. I had my dress pants and a white dress shirt with long sleeves. We had breakfast at 7ish and then we packed up everything we needed and then got onto the bus. Karina had sent me back for her wallet, and while I was looking, I found our second IPod. I didn’t think we needed it for this particular program, so I left. I got to the bus and we started out, and that’s when I asked about if we needed the other iPod. Turns out we did need it. Only Karina and myself knew where it was, and because of her ankle, I went off running. About that moment Karina prayed that wouldn’t hurt myself. Joel at that same moment turned and simply said, “He fell…I mean uh… he stumbled… no…. no, he fell.” I had indeed. I was running downhill through dips and one jus didn’t go right for me and the ground started going faster than my legs. I hit hard, but I was pretty good for it. I missed the gravel, but when I returned my shirt was all dirty. I brought an extra shirt. All I had to choose from was my ‘You are what you eat’ China shirt and my ‘Skillet’ (they’re a band I like) shirt. I went for Skillet.
We got to the church and we rushed around getting set up for our first program. It went pretty good, though there were still a lot of bumps and quirks along the way. Crackling mikes and translating certain words and some intermediate stage presence, but otherwise it was all good. I enjoyed it…and I can be pretty critical… :)
Their music, before we went up, was led by a 17yr old guy named Kevin. He had fluffy curly hair that bounced when he danced and sang. The people down here don’t stand very still! They love to praise God with their whole being. Body and all!
At the end of the service, they gave an altar call. One of our guys went forward to rededicate his life to Christ and a girl from our team that we had been praying for went up to become a follower of Christ!!! On top of that a couple people from the church went forward. It was awesome! I made friends with the Associate Pastor Nelson. He gave up having his own clinic and a scholarship to Spain for the ministry. That was cool to hear a bit about his life. Plus, after the program, while they were bringing out some food, Kevin had seen my Skillet shirt and he had some of their music on the computer, so we listed to some together. As I was talking to him, he was all excited that I had a Skillet shirt. Turns out they’re one of his favorite bands too! He wished he be able to find one someday. I thought about for a second…. “Would you like it?” I asked him. “Serious?” He was plainly excited. “Yeah!” I replied and I started to take it off. (don’t worry… I had an undershirt on….) and then he said that we could just switch! Ergo, I have now a fancy dress shirt from Costa Rica, and he now has a genuine Skillet shirt! :D
We came back to the camp afterwards and relaxed. I chatted with Tayler for a while before we went to eat. After supper we all stared a bit about the day and things we discovered. It was all really great. Then Barney asked me to lead a time of singing. We must have sang about 15 songs. At least 10 anyways. There was crying and laughing and praying. It was good. And now, just about 15mins ago I found out that another girl on our team gave her life to Christ. (she’s still kind of nervous and shy about the whole thing though….) The ladies are going to be doing some discipling tomorrow. That should be great fun! It’s so exciting to see God working! And my hand hurts from writing all of this in one night. Good night. The girls are screaming because of the moths.
March 24
8:50pm
Early this morning at around 3 or 4 in the morning, Karina and I were awakened by a strange animal noise. WHOOEEOOO!!! A sort of high pitched whistle… but less airy… the same way a guinea pig can sound. Anyways, it kept us up for a while and we never found out what animal makes that sound in the first place….My guess is maybe an armadillo. There are the occasional ones around here, though I’ve not seen one yet. I don’t know what they sound like, so I think it’s possible….Another theory is that it’s some kind of nocturnal bird. But I don’t know of many birds that can make grunting ish noises. Oh well…
I woke up this morning completely wiped. I had so little energy. I would walk to wherever, sit down and almost pass out from exhaustion. It was as if someone threw some heavy blankets on top of my head and I just put my head down because I became so tired. I was exhausted like that all morning and after lunch I took some time off from our painting/scraping to rest. I fell a bit better this evening, though it’s like my body can’t retain water. Very weird. Turns out I’m not alone either. Leahn for example has very similar symptoms. This evening she’s been like how I was this morning. Well, we’re gonna paint more tomorrow and then maybe do some program stuff in the evening. We’ll see.
March 25

As promised, we spent most of today painting. I’ve been feeling a bit better. We did a program at a boy’s home a little ways into town. They were really shy of the girls. It impressed me how much they wanted to serve us. A boy with a Harley Bike shirt came up right after the program and gave me some pop. That was cool. Ben did a great job tonight helping me and doing his testimony. It was really great to see him stepping out of his comfort zone so willingly. I’ve been learning some phrases here:
Pura Vida = that’s life (very Costa Rican phrase)
Mucho Gusto = (Big) With Pleasure! (it’s like you’re VERY welcome!)
Mucho Gracias = Big Thanks!
On a side note, I’ve been experimenting with making redundant phrases… things like very much good thank you…. It’s fun. :P
March 27
11:00am
Yesterday we went to the slum area in San Jose known as Carpio. They tried to excessively scare us, therefore only two digital camera went. It was nowhere near that scary. (though 6 gangs operate there… one for each bus stop) Never the less, it was sad, smelly and hot.
I was in a group that was painting gazebos with burnt oil/diesel. That stuff is potent… smalls bad in the heat too. Karina was painting in the unventilated Boy’s washroom and Rhys was digging out a trench for the rainy season (6 months long). Then we had lunch there, came back and were able to relax a bit in the afternoon and evening.
Last night however was the funniest! Leahn was freaking out about moths. It was really windy and there were people somewhere outside trying to scare us on top of it. Therefore Leahn was very jumpy. Screaming and flailing was commonplace during our game of cards. I have never seen moths dive-bomb anyone, but these 2 moths that got in both had a go at it. She threw the cards she was shuffling the one time too. It was grand. Oh, and Kelsey thought it was a conspiracy…me and the guys trying to make sure they’d have trouble sleeping... Twi was having too much fun last night too and helped freak the girls out.
Today, we got up and started painting again, and an hour before we were to finish, two fully loaded city buses full of kids showed up. I recall Cheryl saying “No…no…no…noooo!”
Therefore we are now killing off an hour before lunch with Aces to Kings (it’s a card game). We’re doing a program shortly into this afternoon and Rhys’ team is doing one in the evening.
10:30pm
We enjoyed the program. It was a long service however. I remember the one thing I didn’t like so much is that the music was too shrill and too loud. Even some of the Costa Ricans were trying to get the sound man’s attention. Other than that though, it was a great evening. We’re all every tired now and I’m still a wee bit sick.
I saw my first Cockroach in Costa Rica today. It was in Jesse’s pants. So she went screaming to find someone to find it. We found it about when we figured she imagined the whole thing. So then when it fell out we all freaked out. It was crazy fun… Buenos Noches! (Good night)
March 28
10:18pm
It’s been a long day, so here are the highlights:
- People are getting tired/sick (even if they don’t know it)
- We went to the orphans up the hill. We made some new friends there, friends such as Paul.
- Painted some of a metal roof on a shed
- Hard day for Karina… lots of things went sour for her today… I did my best to help. She doesn’t like being injured…
March 29
11ish
Today I had a great time hanging out with Tayler. He taught me some card games and a bit on guitar and I taught him some in return. That was really great! I’ve been enjoying learning new stuff on guitar now… It’s like it’s suddenly become much easier and I can learn new things again!
We went to the church late this afternoon and we hadn’t had supper. We got supper around 10:30..oi…our team was tired. While we were there we had some time to hang with the youth and play soccer. They schooled us. Bad. Anyways, one thing that was really hard tonight was that the other teams came back. And now we’re not really the ‘leaders’ anymore… And some of those in charge have had differing views on some things. That has now built up some tension and it’s bringing about some unrest with our crew. I hope it all works out tomorrow… We’re supposed to do a church service with 70 of us up there on stage… EEEK!
March 30
Sunday 11:20pm
Our last day here in Costa Rica is tomorrow. We’re going to the beach! I hope it doesn’t remain. It was a long day today. Our team did the early morning service and then we were supposed to watch/participate with Rhys’ team. The service today had dancers in front of the stage. That was different. Karina just kicked a wooden ladder with her ankle by accident. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s had a hard time trying not to hurt herself. We had a stressful morning trying to get our drama up and running. Three people in it were either delayed or sick or both, so we had to improvise new people into the drama. It worked out. Then Rhys was supposed to be doing a kids program. Only problem was, Rhys never showed up. Apparently Rhys had gone to try to get something from Camp Roblealto. In the process, He accidently hitched a ride to the top of a mountain instead. Thus he missed his program. Tonight and this afternoon we had a lot of sharing and singing and prayer. It was good. Wow… I’m tired. Rhys is funny. So is Estevan… the guy who took Rhys up the mountain.
March 31
Beach day. That was nice. I loved the waves and the sun we did get. I lost Karina’s bandana when I got decked by one of the waves. Never the less it was really fun. In the evening we went to an overpriced souvenir shop. Then we packed until midnight. Good morning.
April 1st
9:05am
- got up this morn at 5:30 and went to the airport…. That was way too early…
- said goodbye to Estevan and Arthur… they were fun this last couple weeks.
- in the airport we got to listen to this guy who was playing some Spanish guitar and some familiar tunes… ones from fiddler on the roof and things like that…. ‘What a Wonderful World…’ hehe
- got onto the plane when an announcement came on about if our ticket read 2166 to Dallas we were on the wrong flight and we were headed for Toronto…. Everything went dead quiet. “April Fools! Haha ha ha ha…” Crazy people make me laugh sometimes… hehe
April 6, 2008
11:12pm
It’s been a few days since we made it back… Yes, we did make it through the airports… :P
Karina and I were able to have some fun with our team before we left to meet up with our Encore teammates. Since then we met up, cleaned and packed, and we’ve done a couple times of playing music at churches. Tonight we just finished up a week of a mission type conference they’ve had going on… It was fun. The team is all pretty tired… However, we’re trusting God to renew us and get us psyched up about being back and having the chance to communicate in our own language again.
It’s nice to back on the road… And wouldn’t you know it… We played a Spanish song tonight…. Ha ha… :P